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Monthly Archives: April 2011

Well, it’s that time of year again! The bees are buzzing, the birds are chirping, and everyone has realized that…they haven’t cleaned, their todo list is an epic poem, and finally it’s warm enough to get outside again!

For me, this means it’s time to dust off all my old hobbies and see what’s fallen by the wayside…

Research

My first priority right now, of course, is grad school. I have a Research In Progress talk (RIPs) coming up in the middle of April. This means I need to give a 30 minute or so talk about what I’m working on at the moment. It’s also the first time I’ve had to speak publicly about my research to the department! I’m a little nervous.

Magic

After that, I’ve got Magi-Whirl coming up. It’s a mid-Atlantic conference for magicians of all shapes and sizes. The headliner there is going to be Losander, who is considered one of the greats of levitation! It’s also just a great weekend to enjoy the company of fellow magi and great lectures. Plus, vendors will be there, hawking all of their fabulous (EXPENSIVE) goods!

[By the way, if you’re up for a great magic show, all of the greats at the convention will be doing an evening show for the public…tickets are 15 bucks and WELL worth it (these are international talents, what did you spend on your last local rock concert?)!]

The conference has also gotten me worried though. I’m afraid my recent hiatus from magic has left me rusty. I’ve been breaking out all my go-to books and trying to at least get my regular repertoire up and ready again!

Writing

Lastly, I’ve been working super hard on my new-found love of writing. I still don’t know if I have any particular talent at creating fiction, but I feel like I’m at least getting better with every attempt.

My recent energy has been focused on a longer piece (maybe 7k words when I finish with it?) that spans space travel, galactic machinations, and close-quarters squabbling. An early reviewer said she thought it was very interesting and much better than my first piece, Let’s Do Lunch, which I am still trying to sell. I’m about 4/5ths through it, so I just need to ride out the end!

That first piece has now been rejected about 10 times. I expected as much, as no matter how inspired, one’s first works are usually pretty horrible. That said, I don’t think it’s unreadable. Also, after reviewing more over at Critters, I realize how my particular story is not particularly novel in its construction. There are MANY pasty white guys out there trying to sell a neat idea with no plot or drive to back it up. At least it has been a good lesson on the overall process!

Just before now, I finished writing another short story called Real-Live Thinking Cap, which has a decidedly more whimsical tone. It’s about a boy who buys a contraption out of the back of Boy’s Life – delightful adventures ensue. There is a decidedly less “hard SF” ethos to it, so I’m hoping the experience will allow me to broaden my writing style. Until now, I’ve mostly stayed within a few well-defined tropes. The story is going up on Critters next week, so we’ll see how it fairs!

That’s it for now. I hope to publish a LITTLE more frequently in the future. :)